Ohhhhhhhh, soccer

We're three games into the boys' first soccer season, and at this point we could file the experience under "Great Ideas That Did Not Go According to Our Plan." (It's a large file, friends.)

Their first game was March 22. We all were soooo excited. We had talked about it with them all week, we had practiced, we had an awesome cheering section on notice, we had big plans for a fun lunch at Five Guys after the game -- we were ready. Well, some of us were, anyway.

The three-year-old teams don't have practice during the week. We just meet on Saturdays for about 20 minutes of practice and then a 25-minute game. So that Saturday, we showed up extra early for the game in order to meet our coach, get our jerseys, and give the boys a chance to get comfortable with the field, the people, etc.  Clearly they were chomping at the bit to play:  

{Grant L, Reid R}

We got them on the field for a few minutes of warm-ups before the coach arrived with the jerseys, and they were all smiles. We were optimistic.

Coach Daniel (bless his heart) finally arrived, so we changed and then it was back onto the field for some more practice. Things were still going fairly smoothly at this point. (Can you detect some foreshadowing??)

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{Ryan & Grant}

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{Reid L, Grant R}

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{Reid}

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Team huddle -- goooooo Team New England!

Coach Daniel asked them if anyone had played soccer before, and Grant's little hand shot up.

The Bad News Bears:

Here's their fan club waiting anxiously for the game to start. (Sassy, B, and Blaire had to miss out due to a nasty stomach bug.)

This may be about when the wheels started to fall off -- I detect some trepidation on those faces.

{Reid and his daddy}

Every game starts with the YMCA pledge/prayer, which is just way too precious:

And then it was go time. Reid took off running right away -- it just happened to be away from all of the action. Thankfully Coach Daniel and his daddy were on hand to round him up each time.

At one point Reid actually made contact with the ball and ran with it for a few seconds. Sure, it was toward the wrong goal, but who's keeping score??

{Coach Daniel pointing out that our goal is the other way... PRICELESS!}

Grant was so proud for his brother:

After the first few minutes, they were pretty much over it:

Reid decided it was time to take a little break:

Grant stayed strong and stayed on the field. He ran and ran, but for whatever reason, never really wanted to get close to the ball.

Reid continued his break with a banana:

They got back in action for the last few minutes of the game -- notice the (completely manufactured) spring in Ryan's step in an effort to get them motivated.

Finally -- mercifully -- the game ended and it was time for their favorite part of the day: juice boxes.

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{Reid L, Grant R}

Bless their precious sweaty-headed selves.

Not pictured are the approximately 367 fits and tantrums we experienced during those 45 minutes.

Here's a little video that captured a few minutes of their first game -- if it looks like chaos, believe me, it was way more of a mess than you're envisioning:

(If you can't see the video, click here.) 

Please note:

• The way Reid runs at the beginning -- with his arms up at his chest, like a professional mall-walker. I have no idea what that's all about, but I die laughing every time. I think that's his "I mean business" run.
• Yes, there really were more adults on the field than children during the game. It takes a village.
• Yes, we knew Reid was running the wrong direction but we were just so happy he was kicking it that we didn't care.
• Yes, the video makes it appear that Grant never got close enough to the ball to kick it -- that's because that's exactly what happened.

I'll post some pictures from Game 2 and 3 next. Game 2 was about 10 times more painful than Game 1, but thankfully today showed some improvement. 

Maybe by Game 4 they will spend as much time on the field as they do running off of it to get a drink / pout / rest / cry / whine / ask when they can have their juice box/popsicle/Five Guys, etc.  Or maybe not. We'll be there every week cheering our fool heads off just the same!